Where Did Hot Sauce Originate?

While it's firmly a favorite in many people's diets with several becoming positively dependent on it, hot pepper sauce retainers some fairly large misconceptions about where the sauce came from with many believing it to originate from parts of Asia like India and others believing that it started its life within the America's in countries like Mexico or maybe the Deep South of USA. These areas are reliably famous because of their spicy take on food. Neverheless, the questions still remains where did hot chili pepper sauce actually originate from?

Lots of people make the case that Mexico stands out as the true home and birth place of modern day hot chili pepper sauce especially since Mexican cuisine is famous for its bite and spice. Most recipes in their dishes call for a little hot sauce. Mexico may be the birth place of certain hot sauces including more flavorsome types such as chipolata heavy sauces which gives a uniquely individual flavor. There may be some evidence to indicate that The Aztecs located in Southern Mexico were using a form of hot chili sauce going back to around 7000BC, however instead of making use of this "sauce" for food purposes the tribe were making use of it to be a variation of medicine so meaning that the modern day hot chili sauce intended for everyday consumption was not from Mexico.

Another misconception that surrounds peoples idea about the birth place of hot sauces is that they were injected and marketed first in India before becoming popular worldwide but once again there is an argument against the fact that the modern day hot sauces that we enjoy today are not technically derived from this region. It is widely believed for instance that Columbus bought peppers and chillies to Europe and India where they then proceeded to be highly popular because of their unique and extraordinary flavors during that time. Most people enjoyed the spicy tastes of this foreign food and began adding it with a number of foods and above all sauces. However there's no evidence to prove that people around these areas or time created a unique sauce out of the peppers instead they added the peppers into the sauce to add a kick meaning that hot sauce that we know and love today was not invented in those areas.

However one region that can lay the best claim to be home to hot pepper sauce is the USA itself with a great deal of evidence pointing that the hot sauce was produced (in large quantities) there first with a little help from Britain! In the early 1800's The British Lea and Perrins Company released a sauce which is still available to this date, Worcestershire Sauce which came to USA in 1849, this sauce was to have a large influence over the history of the modern day hot sauce due to its vast popularity!

It turned out a guy named Edmund McIllhenny who started the cogs in the hot sauce machine rolling by using his fascination with gardening blooming it seemed he went about getting his mitts on some rare pepper seeds to grow on Avery Island near New Orleans. Experiencing and enjoying the unique taste relating to the peppers and seeing the prosperity of the Worcestershire Sauce he aimed to make a sauce based on his peppers. In 1868 he succeeded in his quest and made what could be seen as the best true modern hot sauce which almost all people still know and love today, Tabasco Sauce named after the town that Edmund was staying at at the time. It was from the success of Tabasco that lots of other imitators stemming from the Deep South of America started to pop-up including Trappey's Hot Sauce who had previously been an employee of Edmund.

So even though many areas may lay claim to having hot sauce originate from it the true area that can lay the best claim due to the fact that the process and ingredients are still used this date in sauces is not actually Mexico nor Asia but the United States of America!